Bronze medal for Manitoba at Scotties

It wasn’t the colour she’d hoped for, but Chelsea Carey and her Manitoba team stole three points in the 10th end to win the Bronze medal at the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, defeating Stefanie Lawton 7-3 on Sunday afternoon at the Maurice-Richard Arena in Montréal.

“Podium finish is good at our first Scotties,” said Carey. “And to come back and battle today – I’m so proud of the girls for hanging in there.”

After finishing second in the round robin, Carey and her team of Kristy McDonald, Kristen Foster, Lindsay Titheridge, alternate Breanne Meakin and coach Dan Carey, challenged reigning champion Rachel Homan in the Page 1 vs 2 playoff game on Friday night, losing a close 5-4 contest. A loss against Alberta’s Val Sweeting in the semifinal sent the first-time Scotties skip into the Bronze-medal game.

“The disappointment doesn’t go away,” said Carey about losing the semifinal a day earlier. “But you want to salvage whatever you can out of it. Winning that and putting ourselves on the podium – you want to come out and earn that.”

Lawton came into the game having finished the Scotties round robin in third place and losing the Page 3 vs 4 playoff to Alberta’s Val Sweeting 8-7. Trailing 4-3 after nine, she found herself in trouble in the tenth. With no way of drawing against four, Lawton and her team of Sherry Anderson, Sherri Singler, Marliese Kasner, alternate Dailene Sivertson and coach Rick Folk, elected to try a difficult run back for one to tie it up, but the rock just didn’t curl enough and Carey ended up with the steal – and the bronze medal.

“It was worth a try,” said Lawton about her final shot. “It was there. I had to stick it right on the nose, and it couldn’t roll off the one way. So it was there for one. We just didn’t leave ourselves in a great position to score that end.”

Despite the disappointment, the Saskatchewan skip was able to take some positives out of her Scotties experience.

“It would have been nice to end it with a medal, but I’m really proud of the girls,” she said. “They played so well, and it was a great tournament for us. It’s unfortunate how it ended.”

“We played some really, really strong games and our team is better as a unit,” she added. “We had a blast out here. Montreal did such a fantastic job of hosting it, and we were so excited to be here. We thank the host committee, the icemakers, the community of Montreal for such a wonderful event.”

The final of the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts between undefeated Homan and Alberta’s Val Sweeting takes place Sunday at 7:30 p.m. (ET).

TSN/RDS2, the official broadcaster of the CCA’s Season of Champions, will provide extensive coverage of the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, with 66 hours of live broadcasts scheduled.

The winner of the 2014 Scotties Tournament of Hearts will represent Canada at the Ford World Women’s Curling Championship, presented by Booster Juice, March 15 to 23 in Saint John, N.B.

The 2014 Scotties marks the 33rd year of Kruger Products Limited’s sponsorship of the Canadian women’s championship.